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Here’s one indication of the preposterous state of the box set in 2014.

The new release from King Crimson, Starless, is pegged to the 40th anniversary of the band’s sixth studio album, a recording whose original running time was a perfectly reasonable, even generous, 46:41.

The 2014 version consists of not one, not two, not 10, but 27 discs, the majority of them live recordings by that era’s touring lineup. Also included is the original Starless and Bible Black album, presented in its “2011 stereo mix” version.

Stuffed with photos, posters and memorabilia, Starless is sprawling, costly and, to all but the most committed acolytes, altogether ludicrous.

I take delivery of my copy next week.

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We have arrived at a point where packages that would have been considered unviable even five years ago are becoming, if not the norm, then increasingly plausible.

Much of this evolution springs from a startling observation made this month in Forbes, of all places: “In 2014, not a single artist’s album has gone platinum,” writes Hugh McIntyre, noting that only one various-artists collection, the soundtrack to Frozen, has managed the feat at all. But of the thousands of releases by an artist or band, “Not one has managed to cross that million sales mark.”

The situation in Canada doesn’t appear quite that dire. Current albums by Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and One Republic have all been certified platinum in this country. Then again, platinum here means 80,000 copies sold, and even that represents a lowered threshold; before 2008, the criterion was 100,000.

But as music-industry guru Bob Lefsetz challenged his readers recently, “Sing a song off of Beyoncé’s latest album. Better yet, sing a Lorde song that’s not ‘Royals.’ In an era of plenty, we only want the best. And that sucks if you’re an artist who thinks they need 40 minutes to make a statement, if you make music that must be listened to 40 times to get it.”

That chilly commercial climate has gradually shifted the perimeter of what was once considered fringe territory to the point where at least part of that terrain is sufficiently fecund to be tilled by major labels, and the acts themselves, which no doubt appreciate an opportunity to feed the fetishization of music product by a small but fervent part of its constituency, especially with the inexorable (and, in this country, relatively recent) rise of streaming services such as Spotify and Rdio.

That doesn’t explain everything, however. Even in countries that have had access to Spotify for a number of years, “reissues still do very well in gift-giving periods” and when artists are on tour, points out Ivar Hamilton, VP of catalogue at Universal Music Canada.

“With reissues, the music is just one part of it. The memorabilia, essays, rare photos, video content are all elements that you won’t find on Spotify, and the devout fans still want that.”

Devout fans. That’s us. And the challenging (some would say dire) climate in the music business is playing right into our hands. A couple of dozen hours of King Crimson? We’re there. Eight CDs’ worth of recordings from a single tour 40 years ago by late guitar god Rory Gallagher? Bring in on. A nine-disc career retrospective by Bruce Cockburn? Every scrap of music recorded by Bob Dylan and The Band in a house outside Woodstock in 1967? How could a true music fan live without those?

And then there’s a resurgence of another sort. As industry veteran David Farrell, proprietor of fyimusicnews.ca, says when I suggest 2014 might turn out to be the peak year for the box set: “Peak year? My guess is we are going to see a ramping up of 7 & 12 inch vinyl sets. . .”

That prediction is already being fulfilled this year with recent box sets by The Beatles, Oscar Peterson, and even a box of 45 rpm singles by The Turtles.

For music lifers, the worst of times might turn out to be the best of times, too.

VINYL COUNTDOWN: It’s going to feel like 1975 all over again this fall, with wallet-draining vinyl releases from Supertramp and the Rolling Stones.

As part of From the Vault, a new series of previously unreleased vintage Stones recordings, L.A. Forum captures the band at their mid-period peak, with a three-LPs-plus-DVD set drawn from a five-night stint in 1975, the first tour to feature the new guy, Ronnie Wood. The three records will include all 25 songs featured on the double-CD version. The footage on the DVD, which has been restored and remixed, is drawn from a single night, July 12, the penultimate date of that run. Both iterations are out Nov. 18.

Preceding L.A. Forum is another triple-LP-plus-DVD package, Hampton Coliseum (Live in 1981). It’s out Nov. 4 and includes restored video footage of what was then the first pay-per-view concert on TV, Dec. 18, 1981, which also happened to be Keith Richards’ birthday.

One of the season’s final vinyl reissue projects is due out in Canada on Dec. 8. An expanded, remastered 40th anniversary edition of Supertramp’s breakthrough album, Crime of the Century, will come in a variety of configurations, chief among them a three-LP box set.

Though the original album came out in late 1974, the deluxe LP and CD versions will extend that timeframe by including an unreleased concert from 1975, recorded at London’s legendary Hammersmith Odeon and including several songs from the then-unreleased follow-up, Crisis . . . What Crisis?

The records, of course, are of the 180-gram variety. More importantly, they have been mastered by Ray Staff, an engineer whose resume in the ’70s includes everything from David Bowie and Elton John to Led Zeppelin, the Stones and, yes, the original mastering of Crime of the Century.

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